ed in their successors of these latter ages, to whom the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit are not communicated.

The power then of remitting or retaining sins, might be given to the Apostles, in the most plenary and literal sense in which the words of our Saviour can be understood; because the extraordinary gifts of the Spirit enabled them to discharge, with infallible rectitude, so important a commission. But to prevent the misconception of a passage of some difficulty, our Church has expressly limited, and has defined the limitation of the power invested in the Priest. For to the words of the original form she has added, " And "be thou a faithful dispenser of the word of God, and " of his Holy Sacraments, in the name of the Father, "and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost."

That Word, which the Priest is commissioned to dispense faithfully, contains the terms and conditions on which "sins are remitted and retained." And of the two Sacraments, which he is likewise bound faithfully to dispense, the former was ordained for the express purpose of procuring the "remission of sins," and the latter was instituted in remembrance of Him, whose body was given "and whose blood was shed "for the remission of sins."

What are we then to understand by the words, "whose sins thou dost forgive, they are forgiven, "and whose sins thou dost retain, they are re"tained?" They mean that the Minister shall, to the utmost of his power, instruct the people out of the Holy Scriptures: that in particular he shall faithfully

declare

declare to them, the terms on which the forgiveness of sins is promised, and the retention of sins threatened, in the Gospel of Christ: that he shall explain the qualifications requisite on our part, that we may receive in the Sacrament of Baptism, "remission of sins;" and in the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, may be worthy partakers of the body and blood, given and shed" for the remission of sins:" And that besides the discharge of his duty in dispensing the Absolution of the Word and of Prayer, he shall practically, and with due solemnity administer the Sacraments which are the means appointed by Christ for obtaining the "remission of sins." By this due discharge of his official duty, the Minister of the Gospel may in a modified sense of the words, and certainly with no greater latitude of expression than is found in other parts of Scripture *, be said to have the power of remitting and retaining sins.

But whatever the disciples of the old Nonjurors may think, or affirm, the Church of England neither maintains nor countenances the opinion, that a Priest

* A similar form of language is used in the Old Testament in Conferring the prophetic function. "See (saith the Lord to Jeremiah) "I have this day set thee over the nations, and over the "kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to "throw down, to build, and to plant." (ch. i. ver. 10.) Agreeably to the terms of the commission the prophet is, in other parts of the book, addressed by the Almighty as exercising a sovereign power of inflicting judgments upon kingdoms and nations. Ch. xv. 1. and xxv. 15, &c. Compare also third head, Declaratory Absolu tion, p. 460 to p. 468.

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by virtue of his ordination, has an absolute unconditional power to forgive sins. The power that the Clergy have received and exercise, is purely ministerial, being defined and limited by the written word of God, which expressly declares upon what conditions sins shall be remitted, and upon what, retained. To suppose, that any Minister of the Gospel since the Apostles, possesses the power of remitting or retaining sins at his discretion, is repugnant to the whole tenor of Scripture, as well as to every dictate of reason and common sense. What would be the consequence, if a Priest might, as Bellarmine and others contend, immediately, actively, and instrumentally, effect by "his Absolution the grace of justification?" Having nothing to depend upon but human judgment, which is liable to a thousand errors and misconceptions, he might administer Absolution to a sinner, whom God would condemn, and refuse Absolution to him, whom God would forgive. He might "slay the souls that "should not die, and keep alive the souls that should "not live *” This were to pollute "the Lord "among his people, by lying to the people, who "believe the lies of those that prophesy out of their r own heart.". The claim to such a power is in the highest degree presumptuous and absurd. It supposes the sentence of Omniscience to be bound decision of a fallible creature, the justice of God to be administered by the wisdom of man.

the

With great reason therefore we condemn the decrees of Popes and Councils, which either affect to retain the sins of those whom they are pleased to pronounce Heretics, or pretend indiscriminately to grant plenary Absolution to the exterminators of Protestants. And we reject with abhorrence, the position, that a mortal man has a judicial power of pardoning and absolving, knowing that "to forgive iniquity, transgression, and sin, and by no means to clear the guilty, is the Glory of the LORD*;" and assured, "that his Glory he will not give to another t."

I cannot better conclude this account of Absolution than with the words of Jerom, whose reasoning on the subject is followed by the Master of the Sentences, by Scotus, and by many of the more celebrated scholastic Divines. What will weigh more with the members of our Communion, its spirit is adopted in the Book of Homilies +

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Bishops and Priests," says Jerom §, "not understanding that passage, (Matt. xvi. 19. where "our Saviour says to Peter, Whatever thou shalt

bind,

*Exod. xxxiii. and xxxiv.

Homily on Repentance, p. 2.

+ Isa. xlii. 8.

Istum locum Episcopi et Presbyteri non intelligentes, aliquid sibi de Pharisæorum assumunt supercilio, ut vel danınent inno. centes, vel solvere se noxios arbitrentur : cum apud Deum non sententia sacerdotum, sed reorum vita quæratur. Legimus in Levitico de leprosis, ubi jubentur ut ostendant se sacerdotibus, et si lepram habuerint, tunc a sacerdote immundi fiant : non quo sacerdotes leprosos faciant et immundos, sed quo habeant notitiam leK k

VOL. II.

prosi

"bind, &c.) arrogate to themselves a kind of Pharisai"cal superciliousness, so that they condemn the in"nocent and fancy they absolve the guilty. Where

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as, before the tribunal of God, the inquiry is, not "what may be the sentence of Priests, but what has "been the life of those that are to be judged. Con

cerning lepers, we read in Leviticus, where they are "commanded to shew themselves to the Priest, and if "they have a leprosy, then let them be made by the "Priest unclean. Not that the Priests may make "them leprous and unclean, but because they have

knowledge to perceive, who is leprous, and who " is not leprous, and can discern who is clean, and "who is unclean. As then there (that is, by the Le"vitical law,) the Priest makes the leprous clean, or "unclean: so here (that is, under the Gospel dis"pensation,) the Bishop, and Priest does not bind, or

prosi et non leprosi, et possint discernere qui mundus, quive im mundus sit. Quomodo ergo ibi leprosum Sacerdos mundum vel immundum facit, sic et hic alligat vel solvit Episcopus et Presbyter, non eos qui insontes sunt vel noxii: sed pro officio suo, cum peccatorum audierit varietatés, scit qui ligandus sit, quive solvendus. Hieron. in Matt. xvi. 19. Ed. Benedict. Tom. IV. -The Priest is said to make clean, or to make unclean, when he pronounces the person to be clean or unclean. Thus in our English transla tion, the Priest shall pronounce him utterly unclean; literally, polluting the Priest shall pollute him, in the words of Jerom contaminatione contaminabit, with pollution shall he pollute him. Not, says Jerom, that the Priest is the author of the uncleanness, but he shews and pronounces him to be unclean, who before to most appeared to be clean. -Non quo contaminationis auctor sit, sed quo ostendat eum contaminatum, qui prius mundus plurimis videbatur.

" loose